A Possible Discovery of the Optical Counterpart of the X-ray source NuSTAR J053449+2126.0

TL;DR

This study reports a potential optical counterpart to an X-ray source, suggesting it may be a high-redshift quasar powered by a supermassive black hole, with spectral analysis providing the first distance estimate.

Contribution

First spectral analysis and distance determination of the optical counterpart of NuSTAR J053449+2126.0, indicating it is likely a high-redshift quasar with a supermassive black hole.

Findings

Possible optical counterpart identified as PSO J083.7063+21.4333

Source likely a high-redshift ($z\simeq2.2$) quasar

Black hole mass estimated at ~$7\times 10^8 M_{\odot}$

Abstract

We report the observation of a possible optical counterpart to the recently discovered X-ray source NuSTAR J053449+2126.0 (J0534 in short). We observed the source location using the 1.5-m Telescope (RTT150) to search for an optical counterpart, and detected a possible optical counterpart and analysed its spectrum using the $B$, $V$, $R$, and $I$ images of J0534, and found that the possible optical counterpart of J0534 is likely to be a long-known optical source, namely PSO J083.7063+21.4333. However, this source has been misclassified as a star rather than being an extragalactic source. We determined the source distance accurately for the first time based on our spectral analysis. J0534 could be a high-redshift ($z\simeq2.2$) member of an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) sub-group identified as quasars. Our analysis favours an accreting black hole of mass $\sim 7\times 10^8 M_{\odot}$ as a power supply for the quasar. Further observations in optical and other wavelengths are needed to confirm its precise nature.